In a decrepit Latin American village, men are hired to transport an urgent nitroglycerine shipment without the equipment that would make it safe.

The Wages of Fear is a film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, adapted from a novel of the same name written by Georges Arnaud. It premiered at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival, winning the Palme d'Or (then called the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film) and it also won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival later that year. It remains the only film to have won both these awards.

Set in an unspecified Central American locale but shot around a well disguised Camargue region of France, the film begins as a gritty, politically charged existential character drama and ends as one of the most intense action thrillers ever made.

Thirty seconds is all it takes for Clouzot to establish the overall grim tone of the film. Opening on a close-up shot (that Peckinpah would later steal to use in The Wild Bunch) of a native boy torturing roaches tied to string in the middle of a muddy street, the camera then pans out as an ice cream vendor strolls by loudly advertising his wares. The boy excitedly gets up, he's half naked and dirty, but not really any more dirty than the squalid village around him; and walks over to longingly eye the cart full of refreshments passing him by. As soon as the vendor is beyond reach, the boy turns around to return to spot but finds a large vulture has landed there in his place.

The film spends the better part of an hour here in the village where the focus is on a group of unemployed outcasts and misfits, who are obviously 'not from around here'. Their origins are never explained, but they are presumably former criminals, or draft dodgers from all corners, exiled and wasting away their days at the local cantina; Not that they could actually afford to buy anything to drink, but as a refuge from the blistering sun and a place to hang out with others in the same predicament. That is, broke and hopelessly stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Eventually we are introduced to a few of them: there's Mario (Yves Montand), a charismatic Frenchman who has the eye of the pretty young barmaid (Vera Clouzot); Luigi (Folco Lulli), a portly Italian laborer with failing health who is Mario's roommate; Bimba (Peter Van Eyck), a quiet Dutchman who prefers to observe and keep to himself; and Jo (Charles Vanel) an older Frenchman, and a recent arrival who puts on airs of importance but is just as hard up as the rest of them.

Looking for any chance for a better life, the four men gladly volunteer to take on a dangerous job for a multinational oil company. The pay is $2000, enough to get them out of this hellhole, but practically a suicide mission, tasked with transporting two trucks fully loaded with nitroglycerine, 300 miles on rough terrain in order to close up an oil well burning out of control.

What follows is a truly masterful exercise in sustained tension, as they carefully inch their trucks along the impossibly bumpy roads and encounter a series of nasty obstacles each one more precarious than the other. Of course quite a bit of cinematic license is used to ratchet up the suspense, and none of the action would hold up to close scientific scrutiny, but then again what action film really does; and in the end those details do little to stop us from constantly holding our breaths as they navigate their way through the brilliantly edited and directed set pieces that Clouzot put in the way.

This is a masterpiece, from the long slow beginning where we are never quite sure of which way the story is going, to the constant rush of relentless excitement in the second half, made even more effective for what isn't directly seen than what is. All modern blockbusters owe a debt to this film whether they know it or not, but one thing they could never reproduce is the anything can and will happen feeling that permeates the entirety of The Wages of Fear.

24 comments:

SJHoneywell
said...

This is such a great film. I went into it not really expecting anything, and a couple of hours later was completely sold. The first half is slow but not uninteresting. The second half is one of the most brutally intense things I've ever seen. It was difficult to sit still through it.

I love this film! Great review!The use of action and tension is pitch perfect and I hope that more people would know it. Clouzot is a real master and this film with Les Diaboliques are some of the best films of all time!

I pretty much had no idea what I was going into and first slow and rather misleading half did not prepare me in any way for probably the most exciting hour next !! Just Brilliant !! and that ending just kills me. Great Stuff !!

The first hour is crucial in order to really flesh out the characters and the situation. I wish today's big budget movies still took the time to do that. But even already back then, the American distributors hacked 40 minutes from the running time before releasing it in theaters.

This is definitely one of the best suspense films ever. That scene where Montand is trying to back up into this sleep hill with so little room is a textbook standard of what a suspenseful scene should be. A true classic.

I completely agree on this film. If anyone were to ask me for one film that best illustrates the word "tension" I would pick this one. I was also fascinated by the changing of the relationship between the two main characters from who they were to each other in the town, to who they become during the drive.

Wow... another invigorating review!!! I have been wanting to watch this movie from quite sometime but needed a real impetus to actually go through with it and as always your review provided just that. " Anything can and will happen" feeling is indeed overwhelming. Btw, I needed some personal advice regarding my own blog... I wish to contact you with some of my personal queries in case you are happy to oblige me... please advise as to how can I go about it!!! :-)

I agree to some extent, because we've seen these types of scenes a million times, it does take away some of the excitement, but also we have been conditioned to always know how they are going to turn out. When I see Stallone or whoever hanging over the edge of a cliff, it's not exciting because I know they would never let the hero fall and die. But with Clouzot here I feel like it's never a given just how the scene is going to turn out.

I'd go so far and say this is one of the best films I have ever seen. I watched it for the first time last year and the suspense in the second half is just extraordinarily crafted. They call Hitchcock the master of suspense, and he is, but nothing comes close to that scene on the rotting half-bridge. Love Clouzot, and yet I have only seen two of his films. Both masterpieces.

Post a Comment

About This Blog

Highlighting foreign, independent, and cult cinema that many may not be aware of.In the hopes of encouraging others to explore a film they've never seen, or revisit one that they adore again. Contact Us »